A good friend of mine had been bugging me to get a motorcycle to ride with him. He bought an Honda Erion Racing Edition CBR929. Now that's a sweet bike. I was shocked as I didn't think he rode. He knew I used to ride sportbikes all the time so he kept at it. I told him the only bike I want is an Aprilia and they are too much money for me right now. Well he scanned the internet for a few weeks and found a killer deal on a Mille RSV in the Bay Area. I couldn't resist so I made a cash offer to the guy and he took it. Seems that Aprilias really have dropped in value over the years! People have a hard time selling the 2000 - 2003 models for much more than $6,000. I got mine for a couple grand less and it was in great shape. Well great shape but just needed all sorts of cleaning and adjusting to bring her back in good form.

This is the hell I had to endure in order to go pick up my new bike. That's right, the Bay Bridge, morning rush hour!

I was always big on the Aprilia brand. They really kicked some a$$ back in the early 2000 era. I did a website for a dealership in Oregon and took some neat pictures of their showroom. Ah these were the sweetest bikes. They really catered to their customers and there were Aprilia motorcycles everywhere in their dealership.

One cool thing is that I bought an Aprilia street riding jacket back in the day from them. It's way nice and has an inner liner. Plus the logo is small so no one would notice that I was riding a Suzuki TLR1000R with an Aprilia jacket! The jacket totally matches the logo and lettering of my Mille that I just bought so it totally worked out. With these motorcycles costing $14,000 and on up for the R models I never thought I would have one this soon in my life. Spending that much cash on a bike would not be an option for me unless I was making some real bank.

Here is a picture of their RS250 racer that they had for sale for YEARS. No one really raced these or wanted to buy them for some reason so it collected dust. It was quite the showpiece. I'm pretty sure they had it sitting in the showroom for at least 5 years! I did call them a couple months ago and they said it eventually sold.

A lot of people talk about whether they should part out their Aprilia Mille motorcycles or sell them as a whole. This is a very interesting topic and it's great for the owners out there with these bikes that need parts. Here is how the conversation goes:

Quote:

I know the R models fetch a good price when parting out due to ohlins, OZ wheels and carbon and such. However, what can one realistically expect when parting out and standard.

or

Quote:

I have a 01 RSV (blue) with 9500 miles and I want to know what you guys think could catch me the most money, selling it or parting it out? the bike is in perfect shape.

I have never seen a blue one riding around ever. I've seen yellows though... maybe it's a regional thing? Man you should seriously sell it in one piece. Put the price on the high end and just sit on it. You WILL sell it. There has to be a few people out there willing to pay for the color. Blue will sell much faster than yellow I think.

I sold a YELLOW 1999 TLR1000 2 years ago. It was flawless and in good shape. I refused to lower my price as I was not in any hurry. I only let 1 person ride it who came to see it. I thought he was going to take it home but he didn't like the V-twin power... he didn't know what to expect. No biggie. I advertised in the Cycle Trader here in Southern CA. That and Craigslist are the two best places that won't take a big chunk of the transaction line Ebay/Paypal.

Then one day a guy called from LA who REALLY wanted it. He BOUGHT a trailer on the way up here so he could tow it back! Then he had the balls to OFFER me less even though he told me he would pay asking price before he left. Haha what a joker. I knew he wouldn't drive up here without all the money so I simply laughed and said no way. He knew he was dumb for throwing out an offer so he paid up and drove off with my bike. I sold that one for $5500 and I originally paid $4300 for it. =]

It took almost 3 months but I got great money for a very clean bike with maybe 15,000 miles on it. If yours looks as good as the one below I would put it up for $6500 (I'm guessing for that's right for an older one with 10K on er) and state that it's in great near-mint cond. and was kept in a garage? They will probably offer you and even 6k. Don't sell it with bald tires. That's like putting mud on the windows of a Porsch and trying to sell it. That could make or break your asking price.

About my Mille: I bought mine not long ago for $4,000 w/19K and some nice mods. It needed tires but not much else. The guy was not too happy that no one would pony up more than that but he had to sell it. I'm in the process of putting the Ohlins and other stuff on it and it's costing me more than an R model would have been in the first place... BUT it's near flawless and it has with the Ti exhaust, chip and other stuff that makes it worth it in the end.

I saw an awesome condition 02 Mille R sell for $4,600 on Ebay the day before I went and bought mine. I was shocked (sold for so low cause it was yellow maybe?). Of course this was right during the holidays but now the economy is looking worse and people are taking notice. New or used, selling bikes is going to get harder. A friend of mine works for a financing corporation and he knows the numbers. Bike sales are in the crapper big time. Around here in CA you can get a brand new liter bike for 80% of the regular price now. This is no joke. Dealerships desperately NEED to get rid of their inventory, even at a loss.

As for the 02 or 03 Mille RSV - If it's in very good condition you should easily get $5,500 for it. More $ is pushing it I think. Selling any twin takes a long time of course so you'll have to hang in there while advertising it. If you had the R model I would part it but the RSV you should sell as a whole IMO. Like I said, it's a lot of work parting stuff out.

So what's it like owning an Aprilia? I won't go into the details about how people honk at you and give you the "thumbs up"? Or how when it's parked people always stop when they are walking by to look. Yesterday while going on a 3 lane HWY a guy pulled his Escalade SUV out of the center lane to open it up so I could split the lanes up through the middle. I'm sure he wanted to see what the hell I was riding because I was wearing my full leather APrilia Suit. :lol:

Here is another example:
I was parked inbetween some cars 2 days ago in a shopping center. A couple of really young girls came out of a store towards their cars which was right next to me. One girl said, "awww I wanna ride!" As I was taking my helmet off I though she said to her friend, "I wanna DRIVE." So then as I'm walking away she said, "hell you can TAKE ME HOME!". I turned around laughing and told her she was trouble. B)

Here is a recent post I gave to someone considering buying an Aprilia. He was worried about the seating position...

Quote:

The bike is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it... as with all bikes. Let me tell you> It's not easy to sell a V-twin sportbike. If you showed up with $6,750 you know he would take it and be happy!

I also hate it when people tell you that it has good tires so it's worth more. Yeah tires are disposable and they age. Plus most riders only want one brand of tire so when I hear that I tell them, yeah whatever I only run Dunlops so that doesn't matter. I ride 2000.5 and it's one of the most roomy sportbike there is IMO. I run the aftermarket clip-ons that are lower and as long as I stop for fuel =] that gives me enough time to stretch for another tank of riding. I think 3 tanks is about all I can go before I need some walking around though. With stock clip-ons its much easier on your body. And my favorite part.... the Mille actually has a windshield that you can use!! Duck down a little and you are in the slipstream no problem. Other sportbikes have windscreens just for looks. The Mille mirrors also work very very well.

Remember selling Aprilias is very hard. Just the fact that the owner needs to be mechanically aware of the bike, is enough to scare off most customers. Changing oil (getting the oil level correct) is a little tricky but other than that you won't have any problems if you need to work on it. Aprilias have a higher level of build quality that is awesome. Parts are made with better materials and the plastics are a good amount thicker than all the other bikes. The Rotax engines are super strong.

In looking back at everything I have done to my bike I am very happy with everything I have done and I have really transformed the machine from the bike I originally bought. It's funny to look back at the pictures of what I started out with. If you are interested on my thoughts of buying a Mille RSV and possibly upgrading to an RSVR model have a look at the thread I have contemplating the subject: Hunting for an Aprilia RSV deal or should I wait to find a Mille RSVR model?

Just to update this thread a little my bike has gone through a COMPLETE transformation. I really really liked the black color but over the months I have turned it into a RSVR and then some. This is my dream bike I have always wanted and I shake my head every once in a while and just think about how lucky I am to have'er. It's one of those things you want as a kid but they are so much money you just think you'll never have one.

Here we are with the day-glow color on the back to match the bellypan. I love this color.

Yeap I hear that. Need a shop... someday. I have to take a couple bikes to my sisters house while I do my engine swap into my truck. This weekend I'm doing the fork seals on the Honda CL70 so then I can hand it off to my friend for him to play with on his ranch. That will buy me a little more space as well. I have a friend who has so many bikes in his garage it's madness. You can't even walk around them. You just open the garage door and start rolling them out. He's planning a shop in his nice big back yard so it's going to happen at some point. All in good time.